Bot To Trot

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday November 28, 2008

Erik Jensen

SCIENCE FICTION IS CLOSER TO FACT THAN YOU MIGHT THINK. ERIK JENSEN REPORTS.

IT IS the Jules Verne Effect, named after the French author: the prediction, by science fiction, of real science. Paris In The 20th Century, the novel he penned in 1863, gave the world air-conditioning, cars and the internet. From The Earth To The Moon (1865) pre-dated the Apollo space program.

Star Wars led the advance on robotics and transport, according to the Powerhouse Museum's summer blockbuster. The exhibition links ideas from the films with modern-day equivalents and views of the future, such as the prosthetic hands of Luke and Anakin Skywalker alongside current prosthetics and the Landspeeder from Episode IV beside a hovercraft.

"It's a safe place to start talking about something a lot of people get turned off by," says Kerrie Dougherty, the curator of space technology at the Powerhouse.

"Yes, there are people who don't believe that this is an appropriate way to present science and technology in a museum context.

"I think exhibitions like these are accessing a group in the community who may have had a bad experience with science. But our world runs on science and technology and it's important for people to be science literate."

She says the show is a jumping-off point for bigger ideas but with enough familiarity to coax a crowd through the nervous first stages.

The technique is growing in prominence overseas, particularly in the US.

And Dougherty is a Star Wars fan anyway. She remembers going to the first film on opening night as a university student in 1977.

"There are some old favourites. You can't have a Star Wars exhibition without R2-D2 and C-3PO. But there are some artefacts we've never had here in Australia before", such as the Landspeeder, Dougherty says.

"It does allow Star Wars fans to extend their interests from the Star Wars-world to the real-world equivalent."

The museum previously had a go at Star Wars in 2002 with an exhibition subtitled Magic Of Myth, focusing on the mythological antecedents of the films.

Star Trek was given a run before that and Lord Of The Rings from late 2004.

STAR WARS: WHERE SCIENCE MEETS IMAGINATION

Thursday to April 26, 10am-5pm, Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris Street, Ultimo, 9217 0111, $24-$12.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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